Hate To Feel
by frecleface
Summary: Super long one-shot, so beware. We only know through flashback what happened when Vlad separated Danny's ghost half from his human half. But what actually DID happen? Were there more details than future Vlad dared to tell Danny?


**AN: Watching "The Ultimate Enemy", I always wondered what exactly happened during the lab incident (when Vlad took the ghost side out of Danny). Mostly because it's told in a flashback and we never got **_**that**_** many details. So… Here's what I think went on. **

**Title inspired by the Alice In Chains song with the same name, but has nothing to do with its content.

* * *

**

**Hate To Feel**

"_All I want is to make the hurt go away."_

These words would never stop plaguing his mind. The boy's voice had been so sincere and honest, and at the same time so determined. He hadn't even sounded like his usual self. It was as if something else had taken over already. Vlad had never seen him this way, and the sight of Daniel being so miserable just killed him. The least he could do was help him.

The moment Vlad knew what the boy's plans were, he knew he wouldn't be able to do it just yet. The mere thought of simply removing his human half from his ghost half was just too fantastic for him. How would he even do it? Daniel did mention that he had the tools with him, and that the only thing he really needed was for someone to take part in the plan with him (he obviously wouldn't have been able to do it himself), but Vlad still avoided it for a few hours.

He offered Daniel a room in his mansion, and during his thinking-over-it time, the boy would stay in there silently. Vlad didn't have it in him to barge in and see what he was doing, but a couple of times he would pass the room to see if he could hear anything from the inside. Nothing was broken in frustration; he didn't turn into a ghost to sneak off (but then why would he do that anyway?); and on some occasions, he was so silent that Vlad thought he may have died in there. Eventually, the sobs made it clear that he was still alive, and still miserable.

Vlad knew it had been a hard day for the boy, and even though he hadn't seen much of him, the evidence was all at hand. He was all out of energy, and the little spark he had always had in him had definitely gone away along with everything else that was present at the Nasty Burger during the fateful explosion.

Finally, Vlad came to a conclusion. He decided that if Daniel couldn't live with the pain, then he shouldn't have to. He also decided that perhaps it would be too painful for the child to go through with it, so he made a container of a sort, where he would keep Daniel asleep during the procedure. With a mask, sleeping aids, and then an oxygen tank, Vlad would keep the boy stable while he would split the two halves. He spent the rest of the day in his laboratory to work on how it would all take place.

Daniel had brought the right tools indeed. Metallic gloves complete with ecto-absorbing ability was how he wanted it to be done. Ghost Gauntlets, he called them. Vlad tried them on, and immediately, the gauntlets seemed to tighten on the inside, as if to fit to their new master's hand size. By simply looking at them, Vlad could tell that just using these gloves would be enormously painful for Daniel, even if he'd put him to sleep. After some examination, he came to the conclusion that the only way to make it easier for him, and less painful for the child, was to add some sort of claws on them to make it easier to reach into Daniel's body for the ghost half.

While the container was finished, Vlad still had to work on how to put claws on the gauntlets, especially since they had to be able to remove a ghost from a human. It didn't take much time to figure out how to do it (simply use a similar type of metal and add the absorbing ability); what really made it take so long was the stress. Every time he added a new claw, his mind would spin. What would it be like having two Daniels – one Fenton and one Phantom? How would the two even act towards one another? It would certainly resolve several identity issues for the boy, but what would the results be? The ghost half wouldn't have any human emotions, so how would it behave? Would it be just like when the two halves were fused together, or would it act on its own with a completely different personality? Vlad tried not to think about it, he really did, but the thoughts truly haunted him.

At last, it was time, and after testing them out with the claws, Vlad heaved a sigh, took off the gauntlets, and went upstairs to tell the child. Upon reaching the room, he heard that he was sobbing again, which somewhat made him feel sorry for him all over again. He cautiously knocked on the door, and carefully opened it, trying not to make too much of a noise to disturb the boy's thoughts. He walked in, taking slow steps to let Daniel take in his presence. Vlad could only see his back, but seeing him sitting there on the bed just sobbing with his head down really added to the stress and nervousness of the inevitable procedure. Finally, wiping his face, Daniel turned his head towards Vlad, and with red, glossy eyes, asked him without words why he was there.

Vlad merely looked at him for a few seconds, and then sat down on the bed beside him. Placing a hand on the boy's shoulder, he looked at him sympathetically – a look he never thought he'd give to his arch enemy. "Are you positive you want to go through with this?" he asked as he watched the boy rub his eyes some more.

With a nod, Daniel shakily answered, "Yes. I don't want to be like this anymore. Everything I ever had is gone." His voice was cracked from severe lumps in his throat, and Vlad could still see the misery in his eyes when he spoke.

There was a brief silence, in which the two nemeses looked at each other in a way that they never had before – nor would ever do again. With a hand on the child's shoulder, Vlad could sense that Daniel wanted to embrace him, but something prevented him to do so. Was it misery? Hatred? Something else taking over? If so, what?

"Very well then," Vlad finally said as he stood up again. He looked at the child and then helped him on his feet as well. "Let's go."

They both went out of the room and down to the lab. When there, Daniel saw the equipment Vlad had prepared, and immediately, he looked as if he was having second thoughts. Vlad assured him that he would be asleep during the operation, and that he wouldn't feel anything, but the boy still looked nervous. It made Vlad feel slightly better, knowing that at least they both agreed that this would be a nerve-breaking procedure.

Vlad escorted Daniel to the container, and sealed it tight, preventing any sudden movements should anything go wrong. He picked up the sleeping aids and the mask, and then looked at the child.

"Do it," he said and promptly prepared to have the mask put on his face.

Hesitating a bit at first, Vlad put the mask on, and slowly, Daniel drifted to sleep. Vlad waited for a couple of minutes for the sleeping aids to completely sink in, and then replaced them with the oxygen tank to keep the child stable. Once assured that Daniel was completely unconscious, Vlad put on a mask of his own, a hat to keep his hair out of the way, and an apron just in case it got messy. He then put on the gauntlets, and took one final look at the sleeping boy.

His heart rate was stable, and he was certainly still alive, but would he be after all of this? Vlad shook his head and reminded himself that he had to honor the boy's wishes. He had to do this for him. Perhaps things would just go back to the way things were.

Vlad prepared to launch, and with one flick of his fingers from inside the gauntlets, they began to glow an eerie fuchsia aura, and then the claws came into view. He the flung himself forwards to get it all over with, and plunged his hands into Daniel's body. Immediately, the feeling of killing roamed around his body, and he started to sweat. What if the claws hit his human half? What if he struck any vital organs? What if his hands got trapped in there? For a moment, he lost his concentration, and was thinking of aborting the whole thing.

That was when he felt it: a fairly solid feel from inside the boy's body. Thinking he just had to get it over with, he grasped it, and felt the claws sink into it. A small glitch-sound was heard, and Vlad instantly knew that he had hit the bull's eye. He pulled sharply to end this torment once and for all, and after a few agonizing seconds of struggling, Daniel's ghost half finally came into view – just before the human Daniel woke up with a gasp, and groaned in pain.

Vlad's eyes widened at the sight before him. Right away, he knew something was wrong. The ghost in his hands looked nothing like the boy he had fought all this time. There was something about him that looked quite sinister. To his horror, the ghost opened its eyes, and looked at him fiercely. It then grabbed the gauntlets, and forced them out of its body with such strength that the claws ripped its chest, the gauntlets fell off Vlad's hands, and even managed to throw him backwards against a wall with a grunt.

Vlad opened his eyes in shock at the ghost. This was nothing like the Danny Phantom he had seen. He looked upon the ghost as it stood before him, but before anything could be said, the ghost noticed the gauntlets in front of it. It looked at them and picked them up. With a mad grin, it looked at Vlad.

"Hmm… So this is how you did it, huh?" it said with a voice deeper than Vlad expected. It examined the gauntlets in its hands, and as it noticed the claws, its grin widened. "Ooh, I get it. You were gonna make this as painful as you could!" The ghost put on the gauntlets while it spoke, causing Vlad to freeze in his position. What would it do?

"No, no! This is a mistake!" Vlad exclaimed as the ghost approached him. "I added the claws to make it _less_ painful. For the human side of you! I didn't _know _the gauntlets would sink in your aura so easily!"

"It's true!" said a familiar voice from the other side of the lab. Vlad and the ghost looked in the same direction to find the human Daniel still wrapped up in the container, struggling to get out.

The ghost glared at Daniel, and then back at Vlad. "It's always _them_, isn't it?" it said with a hauntingly deep voice. "You did all of this for the _human_, not for me. You don't even care about your fellow ghosts!"

It didn't even let him reply to defend himself, but instead lifted its hands to show the gauntlets. Simultaneously, they began glowing similarly as when Vlad had them on. Only this time, the aura was green, just like Daniel's signature powers. The ghost had on the most maniacal grin Vlad had ever seen on the boy's face.

"Let's see how _you_ like it!" it cried just before abruptly grabbing Vlad's shoulders and pulling him off the ground. With its ghostly strength, it held him above its head, and then sunk the claws in his body. Vlad felt them pierce through his flesh, and then to his ghost half in about a millisecond. The pain lasted for just as long, as the ghost simply tore his two halves apart, throwing both of them on either side of the room.

Just as Vlad hit a wall for the second time that night, he heard Daniel shout in fear. Trying to stay conscious due to the fall, Vlad squinted at what was happening. Daniel's ghost half was still floating in the air with the gauntlets on, and looked down at Vlad's ghost half. It grinned again.

"Hmm… That actually felt kinda good," it said as it looked at its gauntlet-covered hands, causing Vlad once again to think how unlike Daniel the ghost was acting. "Feeling someone's pain? I never even knew what it was like." It looked back down at Vlad's ghost half, which was just now starting to realize what was going on around it. "I don't want to be a kid ghost. Let's see if _you_ can help me out here."

Daniel's ghost half dropped the gauntlets and without warning, it plunged itself towards Vlad's ghost half as if to overshadow it. However, that was nowhere near what happened. Vlad himself knew that his own ghost half was far more sinister and powerful for Daniel's half to stand, so he just sat there on the ground waiting for something to happen.

Then, it started. As the two ghosts mixed, Vlad could only see endless flashing lights for a couple of seconds. On the other side of the room, the human Danny was trying to brace his eyes from the light, obviously not wanting to see what was going to happen. Soon, the two ghosts had clearly mixed, as Daniel's half came into view again. With a green glow flowing around it, it lay there on the ground to let it all sink in, but then, something else happened. Vlad and Daniel both watched in terror as the ghost before them looked like its skin was cracking.

Suddenly, the green glow changed into flashes, spirals and all sorts of weird lights that started coming from the ghost's body. Its hair suddenly looked like it was flaming, and right when all of this was taking place, it screamed in agony, and launched into the air bracing its head. The scream echoed around the lab, and pierced though both Vlad and Daniel's ears. Vlad cowered on the ground beneath it, afraid to move even a hair on his body. The ghost kept on screaming as its skin slowly turned bluish green, its ears became pointier, and its eyes turned darker. It even looked as if Daniel's ghost half was actually trying to fight it, and was beginning to have second thoughts about gaining more power. Vlad's thoughts were confirmed when the ghost continued to scream.

"_Argh! Get out of me! Make it stoooopp!!_" it cried in anguish as it pulled its hair and squirmed around in the air. It started going amok in the lab, destroying everything in sight with either its powers, or bare fists. Vlad and Daniel could only watch as everything in the lab was smashed, bashed and ruined. Even Daniel's container fell victim to the ghost's violent strike. It tore it apart with its hands, dropping the human Daniel straight to the ground.

Finally, the pain seemed to ease, and the ghost slowly started to calm down. It gradually floated to the ground, landing on its hands and knees, wiping its face. Vlad cautiously stood up and approached it. "Daniel…?" he quietly said, reaching out a hand.

All of a sudden, the ghost started chuckling to itself. Just laying there on the floor, the ghost's laughter became louder and louder with each passing second, and at the same time, much more maniacal. Then, as if Vlad had threatened it, it slapped way his hand and flew up into the air again.

"Daniel, Daniel…" it said, looking at Vlad with its mad, black and red eyes. "That name _does_ ring a bell, but it doesn't really fit me, now does it?" It then looked to the other side of the room and looked at the human Daniel, who had backed up against the nearest wall, and was now trembling massively in fear (had all his courage just disappeared with his ghost half?). The ghost smirked intensely. "Ah yes. I almost forgot about you."

In a flash, the ghost lifted its hands and formed its signature green ray in both of them. Right away, its eyes started glowing red. "You said you wanted to make the hurt go away? Haha! Well, now I'm gonna do it for ya!"

Without hesitation, the ghost let its rays pour down on the defenseless child beneath it. Vlad tried to utter a "No!" but his voice wouldn't let him. With each strike, the human Daniel screamed in both panic and pain as he tried to avoid the blasts by running around the now destroyed lab.

"_Get back here!!_" roared the ghost as it doubled the amount of power by using its eyes as well. Daniel scattered around the lab, and the now almost paralyzed Vlad could tell that the child's physical pain was rising. Because of the constant blasts, flashes and rays, Daniel's clothes were beginning to shred and tatter, and even his skin had cuts all over it.

Lastly, he was beginning to limp and grow pale from exhaustion. The ghost grinned evilly once more, satisfied at how weak the child was beginning to get. Daniel plumped down on the floor again, and due to lack of energy, he could only cower away from the ghost. He started shaking immensely with fear, and braced himself from the ghost's presence.

"Please…" he pleaded. "Don't hurt me!"

The ghost hovered over him with an expression that looked like it felt sorry for Daniel. Vlad could only wait and see what it would do. For a couple of seconds, the ghost only floated there and looked at the boy. There was something about its face that made it seem as if it could actually understand Daniel's pain, and was now backing out of its actions, just like it had done when it fused with Vlad's ghost half.

That's when Vlad suddenly remembered that neither he nor his ghost half had ever had any sympathy for anyone whatsoever. He wanted to do something to help the human Daniel, he truly, truly did, but he was just frozen in both shock and fear. Right then and there, he knew that there was absolutely nothing he could do. He saw Daniel's face turn towards him, and with earnest eyes, he silently begged for help.

Just as Daniel made a move, the ghost moved forward and made the most horrid grimace in Daniel's face. The child screamed again, and braced himself for a tidal wave of rays and blasts. Vlad suddenly found his muscles again, and reluctantly made a run for it right before the ghost did anything else, but only just made it out of his lab before the inevitable happened.

With nothing but insanity in its eyes, the ghost picked up the gauntlets again and put them on. Daniel, still on the floor, eased his brace and looked up at the ghost, surprised that it hadn't attacked him with its rays. However, when he saw the gauntlets on its hands, he became more frightened than ever. His panic gave him a hard time standing up to run, and the constant pain in his body made it even more difficult. Even worse, the ghost was beginning to laugh at him.

"Oh, this is just too awesome!" it managed to shout between its laughs. It then proceeded to hover towards Daniel in a slow but intimidating way. It lifted its hands to show the gauntlets again, notably so because it looked like he was emphasizing how serious it was.

Daniel fought with his own body to keep running, and feeling the ghost presence didn't make it any easier for him. Finally, with a horrifying sting of pain throughout his entire body, he felt the gauntlets' claws pierce through his torso. The claws ripped apart his flesh, and as the ghost pulled them out again, Daniel let out a long, piercing scream. A scream that made Vlad cringe in horror, wishing he could help the poor child somehow.

Inside, Daniel was still alive, but barely, just lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood. The ghost hovered above him, laughing at his pain and suffering. It approached Daniel with the now bloody gauntlets and grinned widely at him. It waited for a few seconds only to watch the boy's expressions and motions as his body slowly gave up to keep him alive. It leaned down to his ear level, putting its clawed hand right above Daniel's face.

"I know what you're thinking," it whispered, and then mimicked Daniel's words from before. "_I just want to make the hurt go away…_"

Giving no time for a reaction, the ghost swung its arm in the air, and plunged it right in Daniel's face as it came down. It used the other arm to slowly lift the boy's body in the air as if it was only a puppet, and then used the same hand to throw him across the room. It gazed after the child's body, and when it saw no movements, heard no sounds, sensed no life, its mouth twitched into the same maniacal grin as before, and then laughed loud enough for it to echo through Vlad's entire mansion.

The laugh made Vlad's stomach drop – he immediately knew what had happened. He sprung away from where he was standing and darted out of his house, terrified of both seeing the lab, and having the ghost kill him as well.

Still in the lab, the ghost took off the gauntlets and threw them aside. It looked at its hands, and felt its face. Looking at its human half's dead body, it realized on the spot that killing was better than it had ever imagined. And even scaring Vlad away from the scene made him feel good with himself. Grasping the thought of murder, chaos and anarchy made it smirk all over again.

It looked outside the lab, and remembered the petrified Vlad. "Aw, well maybe I can do one more thing for old Vlad…"

The ghost then powered up its whole body until its entire self was glowing four times the glow it ever had, and with a sinister laugh, it let it all out in one blast. The force of the attack was so severe, it sent Vlad (who had only just reached the outside of his mansion) flying into the air several feet, and even blew the whole mansion up. Vlad shouted in both shock and fear of what would happen to him. He landed forcefully in his front yard, feeling like he had broken at least a rib because of the rough landing after his flight.

Grunting in pain, he propped himself up with his elbows and looked at his now ruined, flaming mansion. The image alone was enough to send cold chills down his spine. This had been his home for all these years – now it was nothing but blown up ruins. He looked at it with a plain expression on his face, not really wanting or caring to show any emotions at the moment. The ordeal in the lab had basically shed him of all feelings for now. But his thoughts and memories simply would not stop playing in his mind. His first encounter with Daniel; his Maddie-program; his cloning experiment; all the fights…

Just as he was starting to feel immense sorrow, he heard the sound of the ghost's sinister laugh once more. Turning his head, he saw the black image of the ghost flying away, its laugh sounding so triumphant it scared even Vlad. He stood up and rubbed his face in despair. Watching the ghost fly away like this made him feel like everything that had just happened was just the beginning. The beginning of something much worse.

The only thing that was supposed to happen this night was to ease the pain of one child. The pain may have gone away now, but the child who originally bore it was gone as well. Beyond gone. Now, the only thing left was a new, sinister, evil ghost that obviously had no feelings at all. The only feelings it possibly had, was to make every life it happened to come across miserable.

Vlad looked up in the air to where the ghost had been heading, heaved a sigh, and thought, "_Who knows what will happen now…?_"


End file.
